Page 106 of A Breath of Life
“It’s not tapped. They haven’t had the chance.”
“Tallus, shut it off. With all due respect, what the fuck do you know?”
I shut off my phone. “Where are we going?”
He didn’t answer. Costa took the Gardiner Expressway all the way to Kipling before exiting. From there, he weaved among streets seemingly at random, eventually pulling into a strip mall.
He parked and ordered me to get out.
“What are we doing? Where are we?”
Instead of answering, he pulled out his phone and texted someone as he aimed for a set of crossing lights on the corner.
I followed, scanning for a tail, still jittery from my flight out of the courthouse. My worry for Diem escalated. I wanted him to call, text, or give me some sign he was okay, and I was overreacting. What if he went back to the courthouse and found me gone? What if my bathroom visitor was nothing more than an elderly judge with irritable bowel syndrome who decided he wanted to shit without an audience? Diem liked to say I jumped the gun too often without thinking. Was this one of those times?
We crossed the street and walked for several blocks before Costa aimed for a parking lot near a nondescript office building. At a mid-sized Audi SUV in sleek silver, he hit a different fob on his keychain, and we were greeted by the click of doors unlocking.
He wrenched open the passenger door. “Get in.”
I stared from the vehicle to my cousin, waiting for an explanation. He had keys, so we weren’t stealing it, but what the hell?
“It’s Tia’s. We’re borrowing her vehicle since I was probably caught on camera picking you up. I’m not worried about getting in trouble with the courthouse security, but they might trace my plates and send someone out to find me and ask questions since you drew attention to yourself. I’d rather delay that happening. Also, we can’t be sure your new friends didn’t have eyes on you.”
It made sense. I didn’t ask questions and got in. Costa drove to a Thai restaurant a dozen or so blocks away. It was long past lunch hour, and the place was quiet. He requested a secluded table at the rear of the room, far from the handful of other customers. I wasn’t sure Iwas hungry, all things considered, but when my cousin ordered several dishes at random, I didn’t object.
Once we were alone, he folded his hands together on the table’s surface and pinned me with a look that almost made me cower. “Talk. Everything.”
I was fourteen again, facing off with my bully cousin. Except, the threat of wedgies and noogies wasn’t in the cards. Costa was on my side this time. No matter how unhappy he seemed, our relationship had moved beyond violence and slurs.
So, I talked, only pausing when the server delivered our food. I started the story on the day we found Clarence dying in the alley and his insistence that we take the finely crafted card from him and get rid of it.
I told my cousin everything that happened between then and now. About Diem’s abduction, the threat against his grandmother, the missing man we were supposed to locate, and our suspicions that Clarence might have hired Ace and his guys to murder his wife and couldn’t pay his debt.
I told him about Mr. Hi Glitter Converse, about Diem’s determination to locate the place he’d been held, and about Memphis’s visit to an establishment called The Royal Whispering Ace.
Lastly, I explained about Diem’s brilliant idea to leave me in the bathroom at the courthouse and his excursion into the city to locate a half-remembered building with a funky wooden door.
“I think they figured out he was gone.” I poked at the mound of pad Thai unenthusiastically before opting for a spring roll instead.
“What did you do with the card?”
“I put it in the toilet tank before running. I hoped it would delay them for a time. No one saw me leave the bathroom, and I’m prettysure it was only a security guard on my heels, but the Converse guy was outside as we pulled away. He might have seen me.”
“Give me your phone.”
I slid it across the table, and my cousin turned it on. He spent a while fiddling with the inner programming. When he finished, he placed it in the center of the table. Costa scanned the restaurant once before pulling up Diem’s contact information.
“I’ve installed a generic blocking app and removed as many location tracking abilities as I can without turning this into a government experiment. Call him. If he answers, say nothing. Let me assess his tone.”
I huffed. “It will be hostile no matter if he’s strolling down the street or has a gun pointed at his head. With all due respect, Costa. You don’t know Diem like I do. Maybe I should assess his tone.”
“I’ve had training. I know what I’m looking for.”
It took effort not to roll my eyes. I reluctantly agreed, not that it mattered. The call went immediately to voicemail without ringing, indicating the device had been shut off. My stomach soured. Diem never turned off his phone.
“They’ve got him again.”
Costa scrubbed his face, tipped his head to the sky, and cursed in Spanish. “This is really fucking bad.”
